Conventionally, in manufacturing, for example, a semiconductor element or a flat panel display, a liquid processing (e.g., cleaning or etching) is performed on a substrate (e.g., a semiconductor wafer or a liquid crystal substrate) with various processing liquids using a substrate processing apparatus, and then, a drying processing is performed to remove the processing liquid remaining on the substrate.
In the substrate processing apparatus, the substrate is subjected to the liquid processing with the processing liquid using a liquid processing unit, and then, the substrate is subjected to a drying processing using a supercritical drying processing unit by replacing the processing liquid remaining on the substrate with a fluid in a supercritical state (i.e., a supercritical fluid) and vaporizing the supercritical fluid.
In the substrate processing apparatus that performs the supercritical drying processing, a substrate conveyance unit is provided to carry the substrate into the liquid processing unit and to carry the substrate out from the supercritical drying processing unit.
The conventional substrate processing apparatus performs the carry-in of the substrate to the liquid processing unit and the carry-out of the substrate from the supercritical drying processing unit using the same substrate conveyance unit. See, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2002-329650.